Nintendo Everything

Square Enix’s latest Final Fantasy Explorers information blast gives more insight into the game’s jobs and Legend Characters. You’ll find a new batch of details below.

Machinist:

– Use guns as their main weapon
– Long-ranged damage-dealers
– Attacks are mainly physical, but they can do additional status ailments and buff abilities
– Machinists
They have all kinds of abilities that let them rapidly shoot down enemies or even drop heavy artillery-like attacks on unsuspecting enemies.

Red Mage:

– Red Mages operate in a similar fashion as previous Final Fantasy games
– Jack-of-all-trades with swordsmanship and magic
– Can use the Chainspell ability
– This allows for rapid spellcasting
– Red Mages have a special characteristic that makes their power increase the more they use up their AP

Yuna (Final Fantasy X-2):

– Can use a special attack called Great Whirl
– Performs attacks some non-elemental attacks as well

Tidus (Final Fantasy X):

– Can use Blitz Ace as part of a Crystal Drive attack

Bartz (Final Fantasy V):

– Once the Crystal Drive activates, Bartz equips the Brave Blade and Chicken Knife to rush down enemies as part of his Spellblade Rapid Fire ability

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16 years ago today, the Game Boy Color launched in Japan. That means it’s time for a birthday celebration!

The Game Boy Color was the first Nintendo system I personally owned (be it home console or handheld), so I certainly have a ton of nostalgia for it. I believe Pokemon Gold was the first game I purchased!

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Satoru Okada was a pretty important figure at Nintendo. He played a big role in the creation of the company’s earliest handheld systems, which continued until his retirement back in 2012.

Okada was recently interviewed by the Japanese publication “Shooting Gameside”. Here are a few of the more interesting excerpt that specifically pertains to Nintendo:

—Since you’ve participated in the creation of so many different handheld gaming consoles, I was thinking you’d be more particular and high-strung. But in fact you’re very open and relaxed.

Okada: The first thing I made using a computer was the Game and Watch series. After that handheld gaming consoles became the main focus of my work at Nintendo. Speaking of being particular, you know, I didn’t originally apply to Nintendo with any special ambitions or designs. Originally my friend was supposed to have taken the company’s entrance test, but due to circumstances he couldn’t make it out. In his place I was chosen to take the test. When I say “in his place”, though, I don’t mean that I was a mere susbtitute; I was given the chance as part of a job-search program at my school. I knew if I took it lightly that it would damage the reputation of my school, and I couldn’t allow that. Still, I didn’t really know what I was doing, so I ended up being late to that test, but thanks to the kindness of the test administrator, I was allowed to take it anyway.

Nintendo’s entrance exam had a section where you had to actually engineer something. You were given a design and had to make a model of it using small metal pieces. Since I had spent so much time in Junior High doing those electrical engineering projects, it was an easy task for me. As a result, rumour got around at Nintendo that “someone good at soldering has joined!” It seemed I was the first person to join Nintendo with any electrical engineering abilities, a fact which would turn out to be a huge investment in my future.

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Those who purchase Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker from the Nintendo UK store will receive a special gift. Orders will come with a keychain featuring Toad himself. Since Nintendo doesn’t explicitly say “pre-order” in its tweet, I assume that some consumers will be able to nab the keychain if they purchase Captain Toad after launch as well.

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Nintendo recently put out a job listing for a lead graphics architect. This person will be “responsible for the architecture of Nintendo’s game console SoCs”, according to the post.

Here’s a full look at the listing:

Description of Duties

Nintendo Technology Development is looking for a lead graphics architect in the system-on-chip architecture group in Redmond, WA. The group is responsible for the architecture of Nintendo’s game console SoCs. The graphics architect plays a key role in determining the SoC architecture. The job responsibilities are:
Evaluate HW graphics (GPU) offerings from SoC solutions available in the market based on performance, power, and silicon area.
Evaluate the performance of the SoC solutions for both proprietary and standard graphics APIs.
Determine workloads and simulation models for both performance and power characteristics of GPUs.
Keep track of GPU architectural improvements in the industry and devise strategies to incorporate them for future Nintendo gaming platforms.
Act as the graphics architectural evangelist working with global Nintendo teams for future and on-going programs.
Work with external SoC vendors as the Nintendo focal point for graphics GPU architecture.
Should be prepared to work through architecture, design, validation, and bring-up stages of SoC design in cooperation with internal and external teams.

Summary of Requirements
The ideal candidate will have had experience working directly in a GPU architecture and design team with significant responsibilities.
Low power and SoC design experience would be a plus.
The candidate is expected to have good architectural insights and the ability to apply that for setting future graphics direction for Nintendo.
A bachelors degree (graduate degree preferred) in computer science/engineering or electrical engineering.
5+ years of lead or architectural role experience are required.

It doesn’t come as much of a surprise that Nintendo published this listing given how new systems are in development years before launch. Still, it’s a neat thing to see!

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The latest Famitsu leaks have brought along new details about Stella Glow, which was announced for 3DS earlier today. You’ll find a set of information below thanks to a translation from Gematsu.

– Simulation RPG
– Being made to celebrate Imageepoch’s 10th anniversary
– Takes place in a world of swords and magic
– Quarter-view battle camera
– Follows a story surrounding the use of “song magic” and “witches”
– Prevent the world from crystallization by the cursed song of Hilda
– Hilda is voiced by Yukari Tamura
– Hilda: the witch of destruction
– Fight together with four witches and the knights
– Alto (voiced by Atsushi Abe) is the hero. He is a 17-year-old knight who’s lost his memory
– Lisette (voiced by Yoshino Nanjo) is the witch of water and Alto’s childhood friend
– Popo (voiced by Maaya Uchida) is the feared witch of the wind. She lives in a cabin on the outskirts of town
– Each witch has her own song
– By “tuning” the heart of a witch, you can obtain song magic that only witches can use
– Tuning scenes are depicted as anime
– Battles are set on maps with high and low variations
– 3D characters can move about the field
– Ideolo and Shakodo Shinjin handling character design
– Hideyuki Mizutani producing
– Dai Oba directing
– Procyon Studio, Yasunori Mitsuda, and Shunsuke Tsuchiya composing music

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Over in Europe, Nintendo registered a new trademark for Virtual Boy. It just entered the database today.

Along with Virtual Boy, Nintendo also registered Polarium. You may remember that Polarium came to Europe back in 2005 as a DS release.

We can’t be entirely sure what these trademark registrations mean, but I assume that Nintendo is simply brushing up on protective filings for some of its older products.

Thanks to snow for the tip.

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